The Baltimore Police Department will begin a new schedule for patrol officers Sunday, finally ditching a work routine for front-line officers that’s blamed for overtime bills and high turnover.

Deputy Commissioner Andre Bonaparte told city leaders this week that the new schedule should give officers more time to engage in “proactive policing” to prevent crime, rather than spending all their time running from call to call.

The new schedule is part of a contract reached Dec. 19 with the police union.

It abandons a system adopted in 2015 of having officers work 10 hours per day, four days a week, in exchange for one based on five 8 1/2-hour shifts with alternating two- and three-day breaks.